When Stars Align
by RavenRoset
Summary: Jerome was only six when he was rescued. Now he's twenty-four and working for the Avengers. But when a mysterious element comes back from his past, he must drop everything to travel with them to save his future, and possibly the future of his new team. But in the end, only one will survive. Can his guardian protect him, or will he suffer at the cruel hand of fate?
**Hello again! Yes, I know it has been a year, but through constant nagging from atrfla, I decided to try and come back. This is a new story that I came up with. I know, I'm a terrible human being for not updating the other ones. They will hopefully be on the way. Anyways, heres my shot at return so hope you readers like it.**

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I walked through the upstairs hallway, rubbing my hand on the lavender wall paper as my steady footsteps carried on. The pant legs of my red pajamas hung slightly bellow my ankles, so they picked up tiny bits of dust as I walked.

Carefully opening the bedroom door with a small creak, I slowly stepped inside, cautiously looking around before entering. The door shut behind my with a menacing lock and I was left standing in the dark.

My room was decent, as big a room as ay six year old boy could hope for, and it was enough to fit everything I needed. The bed was against the far wall bellow the window. Every night I would stare out the window and count. Most kids counted sheep, but I rid the fluffy monsters from my imagination and replaced them with the stars.

The carpet was newly vacuumed, so the fibers were still warm. I smiled slightly, content with the tranquility.

The house was quiet, perfect conditions to fall asleep. My parents hadn't come home from work, but it wasn't unusual for them to go out. Mrs. Ina had driven me home from school earlier with her son Bryan.

I carefully climbed into bed, rolling the covers back so I could sneak between them and then grabbing them again to wrap myself like a caterpillar. The covers were moss green with thin white stripes darting diagonally like branches.

Glancing out the window I began to count. The stars shone brightly against the dark sky. A single bird flew across and interrupted the scene, but its disappearance brought back the stillness.

 _One. Two. Three._

There was a distant vibrating.

 _Four. Five. Six._

The house started to shake slightly.

 _Seven. Eight. Nine._

I stared at the stars. I started to get cold, at first it was just my ankles but then my arms shivered. I wrapped myself tighter and smiled.

 _Ten._

An explosion went off in the house.

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 _Eleven._

At last I remembered. I had been practicing counting for a while, but I could never get past eleven.

 _Twelve._

I blinked. There was a white light in the corner of my room. Afraid at first, I continued to look at the stars. But I soon turned my head to face the unknown.

A woman was standing by the door. She was rubbing her collar bone nervously. She seemed to be glancing from me to the door and then back again.

She was tall and beautiful. Her pale blonde hair was cut in a diagonal bob, starting at her jaw line and slanting upwards. She had light green eyes that had specs of blue littered throughout the iris. She wore a stormy grey flannel over white jeans, but the exposed skin seemed to glow with yellow-white light. Noticing that I was up, she came over to me. Her footsteps made no sounds on the floor, despite her brown laced up boots, and she almost glided as she strolled.

"Hello," she greeted, kneeling by the bed. Her voice had a bit of a British accent, but it was blended with her American.

"Hello," I said back.

"My name is Ryanne," she whispered now, glancing at the door. "What's your name?"

"Jerome," I answered.

The woman stood and started to pace around the room, a hand on her chin. She spoke to herself.

"How to explain? I mean, I'm here now. Guess I should have thought about it before I showed up. Oh, this is so embarrassing being underprepared."

She reached the wall and started in the opposite direction.

"Alright. The house just exploded. Bad. The kid is being held here with me. Good. House blew up. Still bad."

She turned to me and I straightened.

"How would you explain that you froze time to a seven year old?" She was blunt and didn't offer any hesitation or restraint.

"What?" I almost squeaked. _Was she magic? Is she some kind of wizard?_

"Right sorry. Wrong question to ask. How would you explain that you froze time to a six year old?" She put a hand on her head. "Your six."

I finally said it out loud. "Are you a wizard?"

"Me?" She responded incredulously. "I wish."

"But you said you froze time. Did you use magic?" I got slightly excited that I might be standing in the presence of someone so incredible. Kids at my school could do some cool stuff but this lady just admitted she froze time!

"I wouldn't say magic," she dismissed modestly.

The scene around me changed. I was sitting on air and Ryanne was standing on nothing. The sky was orange and smoke flooded from bellow.

Then I was back in my bed. The room was exactly the same, just as it had been a second ago.

Ryan looked nervous. She took a deep breath and kept talking, ignoring that fact they had been transported to a different location somehow.

"Okay. I only have a little time left to get you out. A bomb is about to explode in your house. I'm here to get you out."

"Why you?" I protested.

She smiled at me. "Because I'm your guardian angel Jerome."

With that she opened the window by my bed and scooped me up in her arms before I could say otherwise.

"Ready?" She invited.

"For what?" I asked confused.

Ryan jumped out of the window. I screamed, expecting to be crushed or dropped, but she hit the ground sprinting as fast as she could while carrying a six year old boy in her arms.

I grabbed on to her shoulders and looked at the stars.

 _One. Two. Three._

The scene shifted and there was a loud crash from my house. Heat overwhelmed my senses. Wood creaked and fell to the ground, burning and creating a pile of ash.

Ryanne didn't look back and kept running.

She ran, and in my mind, I ran with her.

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 **So how did you like it? More answers will be filled in as the story progresses, don't worry. I hope you enjoyed it! Updates will hopefully come weekly or biweekly, but in the mean time you can check out my other stories! If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions about anything, please review or PM me! Thanks for reading!**

 **~Raven**


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